[WoW] I Was a Teenage Alpha Tester

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Originally Posted by Tenarius

I have one question: was there any mention of the Lich King or any of that storyline during alpha from NPCs or such?

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The Forsaken (the rebel player undead) are obsessed with Arthas, given that his army is on their doorstep in the Plaguelands and agents of the Scourge have actually set up base and contest one of their lowbie zones (Silverpine Forest).

They have plans for him and it seems clear he has plans for them.

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Can WC3 heroes be seen wandering about?

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Many of them are, and others are clearly just not placed yet. But Taurens graduate their newbie lands by completing a quest with Cairne Bloodhoof, and an optional quest in the orc/troll newbie lands leads to delivering a message to Thrall.

I'm told there's a memorial to Uther Lightbringer in the Plaguelands, but I never got that far myself -- the Scourge is really not fooling around there.

Theramore wasn't open in alpha, but all indications are that Jaina is there and needs to be interacted with for some quests, etc.

Minor characters, like Gazlowe from the Frozen Throne orc campaign, are all in and are sometimes fairly important -- Gazlowe in particular is related to something like one-third of all the quests in Ratchet, the goblin village on the east coast of Kalimdor.

lots of warlock info but wanted to add some priest info:

Priest class:

Imo, one of the most polished classes currently in the game and so unlike any healer I’ve played. I’ve played priest twice during alpha now, early on during dorf before some of the changes and then again now with my night elf.

As a priest you have a whole variety of things you can do besides healing. You have in your arsenal: shadow pain – a dot, mind blast – a nuke that does draw some major agro but is a hefty amount of dmg., holy smite – smaller nuke, little mana, sleep – only able to put 1 mob to sleep at a time, holy word shield – damage absorption shield castable on yourself and others, holy word fortitude – stamina buff for everyone, inner fire – self buff for increased dmg, psychic scream – ae fear, brain wash – decreasing threat so mob will switch hopefully to attack someone else and many others.

I can solo as a priest surprisingly well although I do duo and group a lot but I’m not worried if I can’t find a group and want to do a quest alone. The holy word shield is a life saver. I do a lot of tanking myself, so by refreshing my rune and tossing in the dot to start with and also using mind blast most things go down easy. Every priest can play it different, some will focus on their nukes and some will tank and take stamina increases or a combo of both. I’m a spirit junky on my priest but I do know some that prefer int. or stack stamina. It depends on your play style I guess I would say. The point is Priests can Solo, can Tank somewhat decent, can Nuke and they have crowd control. I love an active class which is why this draws me in and also warlock. They both keep you VERY busy.

One of the first things I noticed as playing a healer in WoW is how fast things go. My first group as a healer shocked me; I didn’t just heal the tank and sit on my arse. You are casting a dot on the mob, tossing a renew on the caster, nuking a runner, sleeping the add, brainwashing a mob. The pace to me is much faster then EQ. You are constantly moving if you are an instance and you don’t have the sit and med time really. The drinks get your mana up fast if you do need to take a little pause. If you want to just sit and press a heal button and then sit and drink/med, you are in for a surprise with this class.

The best trade skill I really do think for this class is herbalism and alchemy. With sleep you can run in and harvest and get out before the mobs get you. Warlocks also being a great one due to their fear spell to gather herbs. Of course you can always kill the mob and do it the hard way hehe. I run almost every nite before I log around a few spots I like and harvest up herbs for the next day and make some potions. I rarely worry about my mana /health with a nicely stocked potion supply on me. I also give potions out usually to our tanks at start of a group and toss a potion to a caster if need. It’s just a really complimentary skill set to have.

Also, I’ve never done so many quests in my life in any other game as this one. The quests are the best way to level but more so they are what makes this game fun to me. The stories behind them are amazing and each part of a quest has you wondering what you’ll be doing next or who you are going to save etc. They progress you through the lands. As you start out in your little noob town and gather quests, eventually after a little while there will be another quest that will move you out of your town to the next town or down the road. The quests get you to explore the world which I love.

Think that is all, not as eloquent as Pedi and Whiz but my 2cents.

hugs
savvy

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Originally Posted by Llith

Any chance we can get a screenshot or five of the undead? :)

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Sure, here are a couple, some of which I brightened to bring out the detail:

http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/Debrot.jpghttp://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/undead_hat.gifhttp://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dking3/vashish_sit.jpg

Sorry, I don't have any pics of the waggling rotten tongues or the pox marks on the faces or the gouged out missing eyes, etc., which were added after the undead push. I was going to log in and make one in the character select screen to show you, but all my character slots are full! :o

One question, but for me it's a gamebreaker:

Does it have a first-person view option?

Wow, that is awesome. It would be such a thrill to interact with the major and minor characters from the Warcraft solo campaigns. I hope for a beta e-mail still, painful though it is to see Players Online: 600ish on worldofwarcraft.com. It's better than the Players Online: Everyone But You that was there earlier, though!

I absolutely love the story of the Forsaken undead. Don't get me wrong, I love the dead. Frequently, in fact! However, the Forsaken have a particularly poignant plight, beset on all sides as they are. I can't wait to experience the undead city, it sounds like such a fantastic place. Any screenshots of it or of the undead kicking around?

My friend mentioned something about hidden trainers for exotic emotes or abilities - gnome juggling for tauren, or such. Know anything about that?

Also - somewhat off topic - this is an Everquest group?

--Tenarius (wonders if the gnomes say, "This is my BOOM stick!")

EDIT: Halp! The undead have returned! That middle picture is great!

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Originally Posted by Snapdragyn

One question, but for me it's a gamebreaker:

Does it have a first-person view option?

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Yes :)

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Does it have a first-person view option?

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Yep, just zoom the mouse wheel all the way in. I personally prefer third person -- I love seeing my paladin dodging, blocking with his shield and parrying blows with his mace -- but plenty of folks are using first person, too.

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My friend mentioned something about hidden trainers for exotic emotes or abilities - gnome juggling for tauren, or such. Know anything about that?

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I didn't see or hear about anything like that. There are trainers around for unique tradeskill recipes, but that's not really what you're talking about, I don't think.

Having said that, I didn't explore the Horde lands to quite the same degree as I combed Alliance lands -- they just aren't my cup of tea in the same way. Lots of people feel the exact opposite, though, so it's no condemnation of the Horde lands. (And the Barrens and the Undercity and the village of Sen'Jin are still "oooooh" spots for me, no matter what.)

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Also - somewhat off topic - this is an Everquest group?

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No, this is THE Everquest group. :p

This thread is like heroin. It hurts to read but it feels good too and I cannot stop. Thanks all KEEP POSTING SAV VASH GRAFFE (who is SLACKING!) WIZ and PEDI!

GAHHH!! THE PAIN MAKE IT STOP!

I will give Red Sox LOWER BOX SEATS (4) to anyone who gets me in this frigging thing!!!! OH THE PAIN HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU ALL!

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Yep, just zoom the mouse wheel all the way in. I personally prefer third person -- I love seeing my paladin dodging, blocking with his shield and parrying blows with his mace -- but plenty of folks are using first person, too.

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When in 3rd person, do you still move around as if you were in 1st person EQ, or does it switch so that right/left is "move right" and "move left" rather than "turn right" and "turn left" as in EQ?

Controls are the same in any viewpoint. Zooming out just moves you further behind your head, as opposed to EQ, where you can switch to the viewpoint of an invisible observer stationed somewhere else.

Very good write up Whiz. Only whetted my appetite for this game. I can not wait and hope I get into one of the earlier phases of the beta. The info posted by you and the rest of the alpha clan only reinforced my preconceived notions that this game will rock.

I do have some questions. How big is the world, or how big does it feel. How many people were in a particular area at any one time (say newbie area) and at which point would you say you felt crowded?

What Dmitry said. It's the closest I can come to actually playing, though! I can sort of play vicariously through the alphagoers, it's almost the same.

No, Whizbang, that's not what I'm talking about, and I'm by no means certain that it's fact. That being said, I imagine Blizzard is leaving a sizable number of surprises for the full version of the game, as they have in the past. Perhaps gnome juggling is one of them!

THE Everquest group, eh? My goodness. I stopped playing EQ years ago because I couldn't find a good group of people to play with (shortly before the first expansion, if any of you can even remember that far back. how many, now? five?), but when I played I was THE Everquest player. I never did find any good groups of people, sadly, so I spent most of my time toward the end playing the "how fast can I powerlevel my millionth druid by kiting dwarven guards" game. I do recall the first days of EQ, though, and I am hoping that WoW will be an experience just like that, only one which continues for a long, long time.

FINALLY I know why Whiz decided to step down as guild leader in his (and my) EQ guild, Walkers, and a VERY fine reason to be sure Whiz. I am so damn happy you got to be part of the Alpha and I know that having you and Pedi there will make the final version great.

Awesome write up, I am drooling and have sweaty palms now wanting WoW for myself, glad you two are having fun and look forward to hearing more.

I MISS YOU PEDI!!! :(

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Originally Posted by Mitebe

I do have some questions. How big is the world, or how big does it feel. How many people were in a particular area at any one time (say newbie area) and at which point would you say you felt crowded?

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We have only had real access to perhaps a third of the world. In some cases, high level NPCs beat you down the moment you showed up (level aggro makes an enormous difference on aggro range, and if you try to sneak a low level character into, say, Stranglethorn, stuff seems to come from nowhere to destroy you). There are also special Guardian of Blizzard NPCs guarding areas where they don't want testers sneaking into until they're finished and open -- and they death-touch.

Having said that, the third of the world we've had realistic access to is about as big as original EQ.

The individual zones tend to be large as a large EQ zone (Dreadlands or West Karanas) but are dense with "points of interest." The zone of Westfall on Azeroth's west coast, for instance, has ruined farms just over the border from Elwynn Forest with several quests associated with them. It's got a long seacoast with three quests and a dropped item-based quest (get the pirate's treasure map and start hunting his hidden chest down). It's got Sentinel Hill, an outpost of civilization in a ruined land with new quests and higher level content clustered around it. It's got the village of Moonbrook, which has fallen to the Defias Brotherhood. It's got gnoll and bandit camps scattered all over. It's got still more ruined farms involved in still more quests. Oh, and it's got a huge instanced dungeon, has an amazing battle for the second paladin class quest (the aptly named Test of Valor) and more stuff I'm sure I've missed. (I'm now playing up my second paladin and doing it more human-focussed instead of dwarf-focussed, to explore the lands better.)

But the points of interest aren't usually crowded together, which makes adding more content and people to a zone fairly easy. In this latest push, paladin-specific quests were added for their spells. Both Dun Morogh and the Elwynn Forest -- both of which already felt full and vibrant -- had new content added to them for the first quest of each race (where you earn your rez spell). The addition of the Dark Iron Dwarves camp near Helm's Bed Lake or the addition of Hero's Vigil to Elwynn not only didn't crowd out existing content, they fit like a glove. But if you aren't a paladin, you might never know either one is there.

How about the selection of weapons and armor available? And how are the skills for weapons done? I know it was mentioned you put skill points towards a type of weapon, but how many points are possible in a single type and how does it affect what you can do with the weapon?

how does it perform, is it a system hog, or does it have a good solid engine.

I need to be able to attack another player character on another "team" without them first consenting to it. Without that the game will lose my interest too quickly. I need the competition and difficulty that comes with a PVP environment. Whether they set up a seperate world for this like EQ did, or find another solution, I truly hope they do take interest in us PVPers. And don't quickly abandon us like Sony did because of our small numbers.

WoW looks promising, and I'm eager to replace EQ. But no global PVP = no use for me.

Lauranathalasa
Sanctus Lumen
Sullon Zek

There are a reasonable selection of weapons.

You use skill points to unlock certain other weapons.

For example: A warlock starts off only knowing how to use a dagger, and a mage starts off only knowing how to use a staff. Now, if you loot a kickass staff as a warlock, instead of selling it or giving it to a friend, you can spend two skill points and learn how to wield it yourself.

Paladins start off knowing how to use 1-hand and 2-hand maces/hammers to begin with, and that's it. They can, if they choose, buy 1-hand and 2-hand swords (seperately) as well. Warriors in particular have a vast array of weapon skills they can buy after they reach certain levels.

Question about the music - I've heard some of the samples, and they sound fantastic. You specifically mentioned it in your narrative, Whiz, that it was worth leaving the music on. Is it really that good? I can typically only tolerate a couple of loops of a music sample before I have to put my own on and leave the area. I am told that every area has music that beautifully sets the mood for it and does not noticeably repeat ever, is it really that good?

Wow, I'm certainly not getting much work done. I suppose I'd be getting even less done had I gotten into the beta!

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Originally Posted by Whizbang Dustyboots

There are a reasonable selection of weapons.

You use skill points to unlock certain other weapons.

For example: A warlock starts off only knowing how to use a dagger, and a mage starts off only knowing how to use a staff. Now, if you loot a kickass staff as a warlock, instead of selling it or giving it to a friend, you can spend two skill points and learn how to wield it yourself.

Paladins start off knowing how to use 1-hand and 2-hand maces/hammers to begin with, and that's it. They can, if they choose, buy 1-hand and 2-hand swords (seperately) as well. Warriors in particular have a vast array of weapon skills they can buy after they reach certain levels.

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So once you learn how to wield it (spend 2 points on it), that's it? Ya can't spend more points on it to be better at it?

Concerning the weapons.... how are the graphics there? Like EQ with a couple simple models for most and rare models for a select few, or most look different....